Mu Guiying and Chinese names

©Wowolove.com

I've been reading in the New York Times (article here) how the Chinese government is trying to push through a name reform. Chinese families have of late been choosing more and more names which utilize unusual and uncommon Chinese characters. This has resulted in problems when issuing ID cards. Computers can not recognize these unusual characters and thus the government wants to issue a list of characters that future parents will be allowed to use when giving their child a name. This might sound strange to Western ears but in China the family surname, xìng性 comes first followed by one or two given names, míng 名. Surnames in China are quite limited as compared to say the United States where 70,000 surnames cover 90 percent of Americans. In China 85 percent of the population share only around 100 family names. Thus the importance put on the given name, which is created by the parents and has virtually endless possibilities. The government wants to limit the number of characters parents are allowed to use to around 8,500. Parents are just not having it though so nothing definite has happened yet.

My Chinese name is Mù Guìyīng 穆桂英. Whenever I tell this name to a native Chinese they burst out laughing and ask me if I know who Mu Guiying was. After all these years I do know of course, she was a famous female warrior and general and heroine of the Yang Saga, a popular fiction from the Northern Song, depicting the heroic Yang family  of warriors. Mu Guiying is often depicted in Chinese opera and she is as famous as Hua Mulan which is more well known in the West because of the Disney movies loosely depicting her  life. Brave and clever Mu Guiying is described like this by poet Du Fu in "Viewing a Student of Madame Kung Sun": “Her swinging sword flashes like nine falling suns shot by Yet the legendary bowman; she moves with the force of a team of Dragons driven by the gods through the sky; her strokes and attacks are like those of terrible thunder; and when she stops all is still as water reflecting the clear moonlight.”
 

Why do I have this name? It was given to me in 1991 by Chinese friends here in Chengdu. They thought that it both sounded like my real name (Ingrid/Guiying (or Yinggui in reverse) and  Morejohn/Mu) and that it of course reflected my personality. Can't argue with either and it's a name that has been very easy to use all these years. Once heard no one ever forgets me or my name!

You can read more here about the popular opera Mu Guiying Takes Command.

Walking slowly and eating doufu

Màn màn chī nǐ de dòu fu! 

Chen mapo doufu (Pock-marked Granny Chen's tofu), Chengdu, Sichuan ©IBM

There are many wonderful Chinese expressions that I enjoy hearing and using. A simple, very common one that you hear everyday is 慢慢走 mànmàn zǒu! Literally "go or walk slowly" but the actual meaning is Please stay! What could be nicer? Writer/artist Rabih Alameddine expressed delight in this expression at the Bookworm Literally Festival and his impish comment made me think how right he was, why rush through life when every little second is so interesting that if you don't walk slowly you might miss its many colors, shades and nuances?

There is another similar expression, used at the beginning of a meal, when a Chinese host asks you to start eating: 慢慢吃 màn màn chī = lit. "eat slowly". The thought here is not for you to be a good girl and chew every morsel carefully but to "enjoy your meal", in other words " bon appetit!"

When I'm on the subject of Chinese expressions it makes me think of another one that I learnt the other day. (An aside to fellow "Skåningar": Why do I hear HippHipp in my head -  "Expressions, uuuttryck"??) 

Let me explain:

Next week my family and I and a bunch of friends are going up to the mountains around Songpan in northern Sichuan to ride horses on a three day "horse trek". Over twenty years ago I did this once before, at a time when it was very new and there were few tourists in the area. The bus from Chengdu to Songpan took two days, stopping either in Maoxian or Wenchuan on the way up and the road was horrendous. I met another foreigner on the bus and we decided to do the trek together. We rented horses with a horse handler. (The horse handler is what I'm eventually leading up to.) The other day here in Chengdu a Chinese friend explained to me how you say "goose someone" (actually "tease or flirt with someone") in Chinese slang: Eat their tofu (吃豆腐chī dòu fu). Back to the horseman: every time I wanted to get back up into the saddle he was there as fast as an oiled weasel ready to "help me" by giving me a firm crotch hoist into the saddle, all the while with a wily Tibetan grin on his face. Upon hearing my telling of this memory (after recounting her own trials and tribs on her trip to Songpan) she burst out laughing: Tā zhēnde chī nǐ de dòu fu le! He really ate your tofu!! 他真的吃你的豆腐了!

# 59 Today's picture Garlic Man

Shanghai Garden, Chengdu 090419 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

This afternoon I came across this man chopping large cloves of garlic in a plastic box in front of a restaurant behind Shanghai Garden. The garlic was about eight inches deep and he was deftly wielding two large Chinese cleavers, preparing finely chopped and minced garlic for the restaurant's evening session. That he was sitting outside on the curb doing this, chatting with the kitchen staff who were taking a break and catching up on their smokes, seemed perfectly natural.

Ze Puppies Bookworm Friday April 24

Charles Dupont 090419 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Ze Puppies (Burton Booz, Charles Dupont, Romain Rabany and new member bass player Harley Fagan Jr) will be playing this Friday (April 24) at the Bookworm, 8.30 pm. Please: friends, family and friendly strangers, come and listen and give them encouragement. They have a few new rocking songs in their repertoire and if all goes well they will play again on May 12th at the earthquake benefit. Better come early if you want to sit down, see you there!

Thai, Chinese and learning a foreign language

My Swedish friend photographer Susanna in Bangkok wrote this week on her blog "Bangkok Life" about how she has gone about learning Thai. She went to a language school where the students weren't allowed to speak! (Paddy's comment: "very Zen"). The students were expected to learn the language by listening like small children on their parent's laps, imitating the sounds and eventually getting it right. Sounds like a kind of "Suzuki" method of language comprehension to me. But it seemed to work fine for Susanna and others.

Susanna's teachers were very clever at acting out everything they were saying in Thai and this made me think about my own Chinese lessons at "Chinese Corner" here in Chengdu. Chinese people in general are not very good at using their bodies and physical gestures to convey thoughts. Their body language is virtually silent which can often be frustrating when I myself am trying to convey something in broken Chinese and use gestures and pictures in the air - most people just don't get it. Their trust in the verbal language is so great it can sometimes be very frustrating. I have to repeat myself over and over, more and more exaggerating my movements each time, in the end resorting to drawings etc until my need is conveyed. Even pictures and especially maps and "directional, spatial, abstract thinking" seems to be something that Chinese lack general training in. When shown a city map it is often held upside down, a picture is scrutinized in laborious detail, as if hunting for a hidden clue unlocking its secrets. I have found though that as more and more Chinese travel outside of their own "comfort zone" of regional and cultural  familiarity, their ability to communicate and think abstractly develops. Perfectly understandable.  

On the other hand they are usually extremely forgiving of a foreigner's idiotic attempts at speaking the language. They listen very patiently, offer umpteen loud suggestions as to what on earth you are trying to say, the volume of their suggestion increasing with each sentence, and generally end the entire inane conversation with a positive compliment of  "My, you really speak fantastic Chinese!" Even when what has just come out of your mouth were more like the insane incoherent ramblings of someone with their tongue cut off having an epileptic fit with their arms flying about in the air like a windmill that has lost a few screws and threatens to decapitate the audience........(Something like what Paddy calls an "illogical fit".)

I have two teachers at Chinese Corner, one is better at acting out the language than the other and it is also reflected in her personality. I enjoy these lessons immensely and because the classes are almost all "one on one" we are encouraged to speak as much as possible, of course only in Chinese and never in our native tongue. One day a week I share a lesson in "conversational Chinese" with a Spanish friend B. from Barcelona. We get to talk about whatever we want and being two ladies with a latin background we never lack for anything to babble on about. Usually we are screaming with laughter, the teacher too who loves to teach us lot's of slang and colloquial sayings. Last Friday she commented that I was good at "tooting my own horn" and taught me two ways to say this in Chinese:

Wǎng zì jǐ liǎn shàng tiē jīn.往自己 脸上 贴金. Pasting gold on your face.

Gěi zì jǐ dài gāo mào 给 自己戴 高帽 Put a tall hat on yourself.

I.e. "pay myself a complement", (svenska: en riktig skrytmoster med andra ord).

B. from Barcelona commented that in Mexico where she grew up they say it like this:

"My, aren't you putting a lot of sour cream in your tacos!"

Pinwheels and photography tips: capturing motion

Pinwheels at Jinli Gujie, Chengdu 090414 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

I have posted about Chinese pinwheels before but only in Swedish. At the moment Jinli Street beside Wuhou Temple has a number of very colourful pinwheels set up so I couldn't resist posting again and also using them to illustrate how you can use motion in an image to greater effect.

As you can see in the two pictures above both are colourful fun images, both perfectly acceptable. I have slowed down the shutter speed in the image to the right and created a blurred effect that I find more attractive than the static image on the left. It is also a must that you crop the image tightly when taking the picture to maximize effect and concentration on the pinwheel and colours. This was shot with a pocket digital camera so anyone who has the ability to manipulate the settings on their camera can do this. If you don't have manual settings you can fool around with the "pre-set" modes and see if one gives a slower shutter speed. Try "landscape mode" which will slow down shutter speed because it wants to utilize the smallest  aperture possible. If you shoot in low light you will compound the effect and get a slower speed. The speed I choose manually was 1/20 of a second. Have fun and experiment.

Pinwheels (fēng chē 风车) in Chinese traditional culture symbolize "zhuàn yùn 转运", the ability to "turn/shift your luck around". Most often they appear at temple fairs and markets around Chinese New Year in the hope that your "luck will turn around" in the new year. It also symbolizes the ability to turn an obstruction into a possibility. They are of course also colourful traditional toys for children.

Jinli Street recently undergone a major extension with several new alleys and streets added in the back, branching out and around Wuhou Temple. It is more picturesque and cosy now with numerous teahouses, restaurants and shops. No matter that Jinli is a complete fake facade, it is still a most welcome break from pavement and concrete. And a great place to photograph iconic colourful images of traditional symbols.

Flower delivery and Chengdu of the past

1980s Chengdu, mobile  bicycle florist  ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn 

Flower delivery by motorcycle and on foot. April 14, 2009 Wuhou Dajie ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

When I first visited Chengdu in 1985 I was impressed by the amount of flowers being sold in the city. At that time Qingshiqiao Flower market was a wonderful, crazy mix of old wattle and daub houses, lively street life and vibrant flowers. More unique though was that in Chengdu flowers were sold from the backs of bicycles, the flowers gathered in bouquets and stuck into bamboo "vases". Intrepid salespeople bicycled all over the city on their "Flying Pigeons" and "Forever" brand bikes in search of customers, calling out their products just loud enough as a free-market economy like this was still in its nascent years in China and people were a bit leery of anything so unorganized and freewheeling as this. The colour that these flowers brought into everyday life had a great impact on my psyche, as China at this time was one of the drabbest, greyest, most visually depressing countries I had ever been in. I hadn't yet made it down to Yunnan Province (or other minority dense areas) where colour was a given everyday of the year. 

Red mums and purple flowers (eterneller in Swedish, "everlasting") that you could later dry were one of the most common flowers sold at this time and I always regretted that my dormitory bed and room at the infamous Black Coffee Hotel on Binjiang Lu (dungeon is a more appropriate word as it was actually a converted bomb shelter, it was located just about where the five star Sofitel is now) didn't lend itself to floral decoration. Anyway, plastic flowers were more the Black Coffee's style. No matter that I never for one day ever experienced a clear blue sky in Chengdu I immediately fell in love with the city and returned over and over again in the following years. There was just something unique about Chengdu and the Sichuanese.

During my 1980s seven month backpack around the country I only found flowers commonly being sold in Yunnan province and in Guangzhou near Hong Kong. China was still too conservative about bourgeois self-indulgent things like colourful flowers for the rest of the nation to dare have them in their homes, potted or cut. It was of course also a question of money, the country was still extremely poor and few could afford extravagant luxuries - ration coupons for food staples were actively in use and 1,2 and 5 fen notes were still considered important (they were phased out eventually in 2006 the first year we moved permanently to China). 

Little by little, China, the Chinese economy and the Chinese consciousness opened wider and wider and today few foreigners (or for that matter young Chinese) anywhere in China can imagine a day without a riot of flowers and colour. Florists in Chengdu are now chockablock and wonderful flower markets like Sanshenghuaxiang can be found all over the country, selling the most incredible flowers for - in our foreign minds - ridiculously low prices. Qinshiqiao, like almost all other street markets that undergo renovation/reconstruction (I call it "market economy reschooling") by the government has unfortunately lost most of its former charm. Almost everyday I remind myself that China in a thousand ways has become a much more pleasant country to live and work in - especially for the Chinese themselves, who had to live through every depressing, constricting blue-grey second of the past and who today surely find it a better place to be. 

Thankfully, bicycle sellers still exist in Chengdu, cycling around town with their lovely flowers fresh in from the countryside. Soon enough though I will have to let go of this colourful feature of everyday life and let it fade into the past, as today it is only the poorest of the poor who do these jobs and I would prefer that they too could take a step into the bright, colourful world of a better economy and everyday life. 

QSI Yearbook 2009

2008-2009 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

I don't like including too many images of  my children on this blog but since most of my followers are close friends and relatives I'm making a small exception.  Images of the two monkeys in this montage were put together for their school yearbook 2009. If you click on the image, it will come up full-screen size so you will be able to enjoy it better. Please forgive my maternal self-indulgence.

Panda Card

Today we went and got five "Panda Cards" for each member of our family and my mother who is visiting from Sweden. They only cost 1 yuan a piece. We had to show our passports, but didn't need to do anything else. We got Gold Cards (there are silver cards too) that supposedly allow us free entry to eleven tourist spots in and around Chengdu. The cards are good until the end of the year. As yet I don't know if we can use them for multiple entry or for one entry only to each site. But even one entry is a considerable saving for a family of five. We got our cards at a local Hongqi store but they are available all over the city, at the airport, at tourist sites etc . In addition to this card many tourist sights in Chengdu will be open to all for free on the anniversary of the May 12th Earthquake. During the month of May tourists sights will also be heavily discounted. 

Information from the Sichuan Government website:

Chengdu Issues 20 Million “Panda Cards” of Tourist Consumption

　　Chengdu, for the first time, issued tourist consumption cards——“panda cards” to domestic visitors on Mar 24. From Mar. 24 to Dec. 31 this year, 11 key state-owned scenic spots in Chengdu will provide free or discounted entrance to card holders. “Panda cards” have two kinds: “gold panda cards” and “silver panda cards”. “Gold panda card” holders enjoy free entrance to the 11 scenic spots in Chengdu while “silver panda card” holders enjoy 50% discount. These 11 scenic spots are: Dujiang Dam, Mount Qingcheng, Xiling Snow Mountain, ski resort on Xiling Snow Mountain, Wuhou Temple, Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage, Jinsha Site Museum, Yongling Mausoleum Museum, Giant Panda Breeding Base, Liu’s Manor and Mount Tiantai. 

　　As planned, Chengdu will issue 15 million “gold panda cards” to tourists from other provinces as well as 5 million “silver panda cards” to tourists from within the province. It is preliminarily calculated that the sum of the entrance charge for the 11 scenic spots amounts to 708 yuan, and it is estimated that the discounted and exempted sum of the entrance fee will reach over 12 billion yuan in total for the whole year. Yesterday Chengdu issued “panda cards” to more than 10 representatives at the National Sugar and Wine Trade Fair, and 500,000 “panda cards” to the club members of Southwest Airline of Air China. 

　　For the convenience of tourists to apply for “panda cards”, Chengdu identified 10 ways for issuance, including cooperation with tourist departments of other cities in China in issuing cards; distribution by the Airlines to their members; issuing at the commercial bank branches and offices; downloading from the website or printing temporary electronic cards and converting them to real cards in Chengdu; and issuing cards at the airport, train stations, expressway entrances in Chengdu as well as gates of scenic spots.

　　◆ Linkage

　　Apart from the reduction or exemption of entrance fees, “panda card” also has the following functions:

　　“Preferential discount”: card holders will enjoy the discount in the member units of “Best Travel Alliances”, which has currently attracted more than 300 tourism-related enterprises within Sichuan as their members. 

　　“Recharge”: card holders can recharge cards for use in the member units of “Best Travel Alliances”; and 

“Point collection”: card holders can be rewarded with points according to the sum of money spent with the cards, and the collection of points will bring prizes or gifts.

Sunshine in Chengdu! The dogs are howling!

Polka dot visor and the Chengdu speciality - the bicycle umbrella clamp!

A big envelope will do when leaving the office.

Monks throw their robes over their heads.

Even boys are vain and don't want their forearms to get burnt.

Shades the size of deep sea turtles. Watch those arms though!

Solar topi hat and white gloves. A little Japanese me thinks.

Darth Vader style face guard. 

All photos ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

"Shu dogs bark when the sun comes out", 蜀犬吠日 (shǔquǎnfèirì) is a very old local Sichuanese saying that implies that it is so unusual to see the sun that even a dog considers it a stranger. Well, I didn't actually hear any dogs barking today (other than the pesky little mutt that barks everyday in our garden at the Wuhou Mingyuan) but the sun has really been shining! Winter ended with two weeks of spring then rapidly segued into full blast summer. It's wonderful but getting hotter by the minute. The Chinese are scared of the sun (dark skin is considered lower class and infoerior) and want as little of it as possible to touch their precious whitey-white skin so all kinds of preventive measures are taken as you can see above. Here in Chengdu we also have a very practical bicycle invention whereby you can attach your umbrella to the handlebar, rain or shine. I remember with fondness the beautiful ladies of Vietnam buzzing by on their motorcycles wearing long white opera gloves! I think it's time for me to go out onto the balcony and give a shout at the sun.